[Sailor Steve]

So, a Hurricane is safer than a Spitfire? I'll bet those Wellington pilots were glad they weren't flying Lancasters. The fact is that what knocks airplanes down are critical hits. Many metal aircraft came home full of holes. A fabric-covered plane is just as susceptible to engine hits, control hits and pilot hits as any other plane, and that's what brings them down, not holes in the fuselage or wing surfaces.

My initial point was that it wasn't the fabric that saved the Swordfish against Bismarck, it was the fact that they weren't hit.